Daily Times

Disappointed by recent amendments, the director general of the Ehtesab Commission (EC) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Hamid Khan, resigned from his post last week. “It was not simply a job for me; I accepted the position as a challenge, a mission to contribute to society,” he said on television after stepping down, “With those changes in place, I do not think I can carry on serving the people in
that position.”

Answering a question in an interview about raising his concerns to the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Imran Khan, he said, “I met Imran Khan and explained that his own campaign against corruption would be damaged by the proposed changes. But I found that the party leader was more concerned about the bureaucrats who had threatened to stop working in his province because of the fear of the EC.” He, it seems, reassured the former cricketer afterwards but the meeting still ended inconclusively.

The party image would not have been tarnished so badly, had he stopped appearing in personal interviews one after the other, and reduced his exposure to the persistent queries of journalists. But he did not. Instead, he just kept on pounding the provincial administration with his jabs, claiming huge corruption had been found in every department, in every transection. “Even the Chief Minister (CM) is not completely clean,” he asserted in front of the camera one day, “He may have been involved in a scandal that can reach up to billions of rupees.”

By questioning the transparency of the PTI-led coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, by stoking suspicions about the ‘unclean’ character of its CM, Pervez Khattak, and by stirring controversies against the members of the provincial assembly, the retired lieutenant general has jolted the essence of the PTI like one shakes a bottle of fruit juice before consumption. Why? Because Imran erected his political career based on the promise that he would put an end to financial misdeeds, that his party would provide a governance model that would be clean, honest and transparent, that his team would be free of allegations. Shocked with the recent development, even his supporters now ask: “Is this the ‘promised land’ that we were all excited to get into?”

Imran has insisted throughout his career that the root cause behind our failure lies in the financial corruption of Pakistani politicians, who always give preference to their personal gains over the national interest, who plunder the wealth of the country to profit themselves while letting Pakistan sink into an abyss of poverty, ignorance and extremism.

The facts, however, contradict his statements. Numerous countries around the world, including India, have prospered without first eliminating corruption. The only prerequisite is that the democratic process stays uninterrupted and the Constitution never gets suspended. In contrast, the countries where democratic process is crushed in the name of transparency eventually fall into chaos, empty handed, unable to exist as a viable state. This list includes Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and so on. I do not think the monetary irregularities of politicians damage the country as much as holding its Constitution in abeyance. I also do not support corruption.

Imran had to distinguish himself from the others to make inroads into politics. For that, he created two simple rules. Any politician who joined the PTI joined because he indeed wanted to serve Pakistan no matter how tainted his past may have been and anyone who joined the rivals, joined to rake in commissions, irrespective of his clean reputation.

This distinction allowed him to call them names without any remorse, hurl abuses and sting them with his harsh tongue. His tactics worked as he created a following of ‘zealots’ who passed even ruder comments, used more abusive language and punched way below the belt, hitting a new low every time. Embarking on this trajectory of allegations was bound to haunt him. Before the last elections, he enjoyed the advantage of never having been in a government so he could claim innocence. But after being in government for almost three years, the day has arrived for the PTI to be on the receiving of accusations with it having to defend itself from the attacks of others, an agonising experience that it never had to go through in the past. What worries me even more is that General Hamid Khan is not the only one; many more are waiting for the right time to share their experiences.

The second rule depended on self-projection and self-aggrandisement. In that regard, the PTI chairman shares many similarities with the Republican presidential candidate and the real estate tycoon Donald Trump. For example, Mr Trump asserts that he will build a wall between Mexico and the US; the former cricketer, in an equally unrealistic claim, asserts that corruption at any level can be rooted out in just 19 days.

Similarly, both of them stand by their hodgepodge political views, both of them berate their rivals in the most indecent manner, both of them show intolerance for criticism and both of them rely upon personal success to advance the party narrative. Mr Trump cites his business acumen, mentioning his success as an investor during debates, while, Imran refers to the Yorkers, the third umpires, the double wickets and sixers to provide an explanation for his administrative capabilities.

The difference is that the presidential candidate is hard on terrorists, so much so that he wants to ban the entry of Muslims in the US. He does not even mind torturing suspects. The PTI chairman, on the other hand, seems to be soft on terrorists, blaming the US for the activities of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Pakistan and protesting against the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsood in a drone strike, the same man who was responsible for hundreds of suicide attacks against Pakistanis.

The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com